Residents are not calm

By Kelly Yates
NARRE Warren residents want speed calming devices installed in their street and a greater police presence in an effort to stop speeding drivers.
Rita and Emmanual Cuschieri say drivers need to slow down on Kurrajong Road, Narre Warren before someone gets seriously hurt or killed.
The pair has voiced their views in a road safety survey by Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan.
The survey was sent out to residents in the Oatlands estate earlier this year, giving them an opportunity to say whether they thought the local roads could be made safer.
Mr Donnellan said the findings from the survey proved that residents wanted better roads with more safety measures.
“There was an overwhelming support for greater safety measures on Kurrajong Road and Ryelands Drive,” he said.
“Residents had the option of choosing multiple safety measures in the survey. Over 100 respondents indicated that speed humps are needed on Kurrajong Road, and there were also 77 votes for chicanes on the same road.”
Acting Sergeant Allen Inderwisch at the Casey Traffic Management Unit (TMU) said police were regularly patrolling Kurrajong Road.
“We have identified issues relating to speed, especially in the permanent 40km/h section near Oatlands Primary School,” Act Sgt Inderwisch said.
Police have been nabbing speeding drivers on the road as part of Operation Juno, a highly visible operation which was launched in the City of Casey in a bid to stop drivers ignoring the school zone speed limits.
“Police have caught a number of speeding drivers in the 40km/h and 50km/h zones who are locals in the area,” Act Sgt Inderwisch said.
“We are happy to respond to complaints from residents about poor driving behaviour but unfortunately, a lot of the time it’s those residents who are breaking the law.”
Act Sgt Inderwisch said many of the drivers had been nabbed travelling between 15km/h and 20km/h over the speed limit.
Mr Donnellan is planning to send the results of the survey to Casey Council.
City of Casey transport manager Paul Hamilton said a report regarding traffic and speed concerns on Kurrajong Road was presented at a Casey Council meeting last December.
The council officers reported that traffic surveys were conducted and found a high proportion of cars were exceeding the legal speed limit.
It is one of the highest priority sites for the installation of traffic calming devices, under the council’s LTM Strategy.
“There are currently five projects in this phase that have been assessed as a higher priority than Kurrajong Road, and as such it is recommended that consideration for referral of Kurrajong Road to the next phase of the LTM process is made in the next annual review, in late 2010.”